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Paolo Costantini - Quest Design
The following is a concept design for a level that would take place within the same core world and hub set up by the documents linking to it, set in prohibition era Chicago and follows the attempts of James Brown to extract information from a civilian the mafia higher ups believe has witnessed too much of their operation. The completion of this quest can either end with James being forced to kill the witness or with the Witness being let go, both of which have later consequences. Hook: James finds himself in a room looking in on a man, tied to a chair and blindfolded – clearly battered and bruised, with one of the “Enforcers” of the mafia that he has been tasked to work with, with the objective of extracting information from the man held hostage in the other room and deciding what to do with it, without incurring the wrath of the mafia or the legal system. Theme: Complex moral dilemma with clear future consequences, Nuanced conversation and psychological manipulation Backstory: Upon discovering the man held in the other room hiding in a box, having witnessed an entire mafia shoot out and discussion of future plans shortly thereafter, the mafia decides to bring the man to one of their outposts and ensure he either knows nothing or will never be able to tell anyone, whilst also using this situation as a way to test James' loyalty. Plotline: During a raid on a police outpost that had recently confiscated a huge amount of alcohol in which the mafia was able to take out a large majority of the guards and escape with most of the confiscated alcohol, a civilian was discovered hiding among the confiscated crates and is promptly brought back to the mafia outpost under the assumption that he heard the plans of the mafia and could not be allowed to leave. The player is tasked with making sure this man either knows nothing or, if he does, killing him or making him join the mafia via detailed conversation trees. However, due to the player character being James for this section, it is also possible to release the man and lie about him knowing nothing, which may have future consequences for James and the mafia. Motivation: There are two obvious motivations for this quest for the character of James, the first being to ensure the mafia continues to trust him as he attempts to pay off his family's debts without hurting his family or him. The second is to keep his moral code intact and ensure the man gets away from the mafia safely, WITHOUT endangering his goals and first motivating aspect. Then there is the motivation for completing this quest for the player themselves, which ideally would lie in ensuring James is successful in his goals as the game should have built a strong connection and care between for James in the player. Occurrence: This quest would take place midway through the game, once James has already been given opportunities to go against his moral code and further the mafias trust in him or not. This means that, depending on previous choices, the player will be presented with differing options during this quest. Special Content: As mentioned previously, the decisions in previous quests will alter the options available to James in this quest. If he has consistently broken his moral code in the interest of gaining the trust of his bosses, he may simply kill the man, though this will have significant negative effects on his mental state and the future of the game, should the player be interested in getting the good ending. If he has done the opposite of that, and held true to his moral compass throughout, James will be all but locked into choosing to let the man go, meaning the future consequences lie entirely with the dialogue options chosen when conversing with the man.